31 December 2012 6:14 PM

Why are so many of my fellow Liverpool fans so unpleasant?

I have been a supporter of Liverpool Football Club since 1981. I had the misfortune as a kid of being at Hillsborough in 1989 and saw 96 people killed in front of me principally because of the negligence of South Yorkshire Police and the Football Association. The cover-up, coordinated by the police, that saw the denigration of the reputations of those who were killed when they simply went to watch a football match is one of the most shameful episodes of British public life of the past 50 years.

Yesterday the Tory MP who worked most closely with the police, <="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2255074/Dead-83-Tory-MP-blamed-fans-Hillsborough-notorious-Sun-page.html" target="_self">Sir Irvine Patnick, died. He was rightly attacked over the past 23 years for his role in smearing those who died and only latterly recanted his sins after the Hillsborough Report exposed his shame.

Yesterday on Twitter I found myself involved in a rather bizarre row with Tony Evans, a Times journalist who was also at Hillsborough. Like many Liverpool fans, Evans seemed to be glad to learn of Sir Irvine's death. In fact the vitriol aimed at Sir Irvine (and, as ever, all Tories) from Merseysiders has been quite astonishing.

Sir Irvine Patnick has yet to be laid to rest and yet thousands of scousers are dancing and spitting on his grave.

When I attended the Carling Cup Final at Wembley last season I was greeted by the sight of a banner that read: 'Expose the lies before Thatcher dies'. What lies is Lady Thatcher responsible for exactly? None. The Bishop of Liverpool made that plain in the Hillsborough Report but why let facts get in the way of years of grievances, real or imagined?

A few weeks later, Kenny Dalglish (who, by the way, should never have been sacked by the club's owners) led Liverpool back to Wembley for the FA Cup Final against Chelsea. When the national anthem was played I was disgusted to hear tens of thousands of scousers boo it.

Rather than debating whether it is in any way decent or humane to crow over the death of another human being (even a hated Tory such as Sir Irvine Patnick), most Liverpool fans who leapt to the defence of Tony Evans (with the noble exception of Hal Cohen) decided to send me delightful messages such as 'nonce', 'fat greasy headed tit', 'Tory and LFC fan should never be seen in the same sentence' (no, seriously), 'you turkey necked four-eyed tw*t', 'f**k off you toffee nosed c**t', 'u cheeky fat f**kin skum (sic) bag', 'your (sic) no red you Donal you filthy c**t', a particularly delightful 'f**k off you bastard your nans (sic) dead', 'why don't you die you fat goggle eyed tw*t' and, of course, 'we're gonna have a party when Maggie Thatcher dies' (as well as 'gonna have a party when Donal Blaney dies').

The more violent and threatening of these posts have been passed to the police as they are clearly breaches of the Malicious Communications Act.

Leaving aside the illiteracy that permeates most of the hate-filled tweets directed at me, I really do wonder what it is that motivates people like this to get out of bed in the morning and to send such abusive messages to someone they have never met (and never will).

Their lives are filled with such all-consuming hatred and bitterness that they must truly be the most miserable, unhappy and dissatisfied group of people alive. One can only have pity for such wretches.

Not that it will help - principally because those with a chip on their shoulder are simply unable to conceive of others having a differing point of view to them - but I reiterate that, as someone who was also at Hillsborough as a kid, I remain traumatised by what I saw.

The difference is that I am not a politically motivated conspiracy theorist. I had faith that the legal system would eventually result in justice for the 96 and it has. Those who were to blame are now being held to account, albeit 23 years too late (and where 13 of those years were under a Labour government that could and should have done something about it too).

But in any campaign it is crucial to build as broad a coalition as possible. The mistake made by too many twisted individuals, to judge from my Twitter feed, is that they see the internet as a vehicle to say vile things to people that they would never dare say to them in person. They bring discredit on themselves, the club we all support and the memories of those who were so tragically killed at Hillsborough in 1989.

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DONAL BLANEY

Donal Blaney is the Senior Partner in Griffin Law (www.griffinlaw.co.uk), a niche litigation practice. He made law when he obtained the first injunction to be served using Twitter in 2009, known as a "Blaney's Blarney Order" (after a provocative and opinionated political blog that he wrote of that name until 2010).
He is also the co-founder and Chief Executive of the Young Britons' Foundation (www.ybf.org.uk), a non-partisan, not-for-profit educational, researching and training organisation that identifies, educates, mentors and places conservatives in public life and that exposes bias, waste and extremism in the education system.
Educated at Tonbridge School and Southampton University, Donal is a former National Chairman of Conservative Future and of the National Association of Conservative Graduates, a former local councillor, lectures widely on legal and political issues and regularly appears on Sky News and BBC Radio 5. He is married to a former US Army reserve soldier who served in Iraq and divides his time between Kent and Florida.
Donal has been described by leading political commentator Iain Dale as "the closest thing we have in this country to a Fox News pundit". He takes that as a compliment.